Saanain
Saanain is a Uralic language, specifically a Finnic language, with shared vocabulary between it, Finnish, and Estonian. It is spoken by around 1.5 million people in Saanaimaa, a landlocked country, and is notable for its synthetic grammar and extremely flexible sentence structure. Classification and Dialects Saanain is a Uralic language in the Finnic branch of those languages. It is mutually intelligible with Finnish and Estonian in its vocabulary but much less in its syntax and spoken forms. It is spoken in four main dialects. The first is the Roettul dialect in the northern parts of Saanaimaa. The most spoken is the Saikkul dialect, spoken in the regions surrounding the capital, Saikkul. There are also the Southeastern and Southwestern dialects, each spoken in their respective areas. These dialects differ with the inclusion or deletion of Old Saanain phenomena, as well as the treatment of words and sentence structure. The Roettul dialect, being closer to the country Dora, which speaks the Slavic language Dorian, as well as the Anigarsko language closely related to Dorian, has introduced many Slavic loanwords into its vocabulary, while other dialects remain conservative in their borrowing. It is a fact, however, that all forms of Saanain have borrowed some words from Dorian or other Slavic languages, such as kaytö ''("like" or "as", related to Dorian ''kak ''and related to Bulgarian ''kakto; vulla ("power", from Dorian vul'a ''and related to Bulgarian ''volya); and siemka ''(either derived from Proto-Finnic ''*seeme or Dorian syom'ka, "seed"). Phonology Consonants Vowels Phonotactics Writing System Grammar Nouns ' Nouns in Saanain inflect for case, number, and sometimes for their role in the sentence. There are 25 cases in Saanain, with one case, the supercomparative, generally counted as an extension of the comparative case, and the dative case almost never used. Nouns can be either singular or plural. They are inflected for one of the 25 cases. For example, the noun muonn, roof, can be inflected as follows: muonn (nominative), muonnon(accusative), muonnon (genitive), muossa (elative), muonnalta (delative), muosta (ablative), muonnta (exessive), muonntu (inessive), muonnina (superessive), muolla (adessive), muonna (essive), muomaa (illative), muonnata (sublative), muolle (allative), muoksi (translative), muonnse (prolative), muonn (instructive), muonne- (comitative), muottan (distributive), muonnta (partitive), muotta (abessive), muonnuo (comparative), muonnka (superlative), muonnas (lative), muolloin (temporal, although technically not a correct construction), and the two side cases, muonnuos (supercomparative), muonnod (dative). In some cases, nouns can be altered to reflect plurality in their stem when bound with a case suffix. Nouns are also inflected in two numbers, singular and plural. The plural stem is usually (except in the case of the noun case stem) ''-t''. For example, uuvuo, wind, becomes uuvuot ''in the plural. However, when nouns end in consonants, the ending is changed so that the vowel before the last consonant in the word (the last vowel) is added to the ''-t. So, muonn ''becomes ''muonnot. Since sentences usually follow either an SOV or an SVO order, nouns almost always come first. However, due to the highly versatile orders that sentences can take on, any sentence structure is (at least in theory) possible. There is a small difference between two types of nouns that alters their case endings slightly in the accusative. These nouns become Accusative I nouns or Accusative II nouns according to their ending, respectively. Accusative I nouns make up the vast majority of nouns in sentences; they are formed by the regular accusative case ending ''-(V)n''. Accusative II nouns, however, are used when they are one part of a phrasal object, that is, a phrase used as the object of a transitive verb. The last vowel is retained or ''-in becomes the accusative particle. Verbs Verbs are the most complicated part of Saanain grammar. They are inflected for voice, tense, mood, and connegativity (to four degrees). The two voices in Saanain are active and passive. Saanain does not have a "common person" inflection like other Finnic languages. *Passive voice weak affirmative.' Saanain also conjugates for four tenses: present, perfect, imperfect, and pluperfect. ' ' Moods There are several moods that are taken into account when inflecting verbs. These include the conditional, potential, optative, eventive, regrettive, casive, and assurative (or affirmative). Connegativity Saanain connegativity uses four degrees of separation, the strong positive, the weak positive, the weak negative, and the strong negative. The strong forms have mostly fallen out of use, merging with the weak forms, but there was traditionally separation between them. The weak positive is the normal form of the verb, while the strong postive implies that the thing (being) done is or was the only thing done. The weak negative is the normal negative form of the verb, while the strong negative implies that the thing (being) done is or was the only thing not being done. Telicity Verbs do not have an aspect form, but they do have telicity. Like Finnish, Saanain uses a system wherein the object of a transitive verb is inflected with the accusative case ending for telic verbs and the distributive case ending for atelic verbs (though it is hard to tell how the latter originated). Imperative and Interrogative There are two more forms for verbs, the imperative and interrogative. * The second imperative is frequently used in place of the first. Passive Voice The passive voice is divided into two degrees or "strengths" based on the function of the passive verb in the sentence. Weak Form Verbs in the passive voice are always weak. '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' Strong Passive Strong passive verbs are infinitives and gerunds only. *Infinitives are discussed more in the Infinitives ''section below. Infinitives Infinitives are the final form of verbs. They come in five types, the Type I, Type II, Type III, Type IV, and Type V infinitives. Type I infinitives are the same as the English formation "to -". The ending for Type I infinitives is ''-a. 'tollo- '"come" > 'tolloa '"to come" Type II infinitives translate to "while -ing". Their ending is ''-nu''. 'audo- '"give" > 'audonu '"while giving" Type III infinitives are the same as English gerunds. Their ending is ''-ana'', with the last consonant of the stem deleted. 'manhaatse- '"control" > 'manhaatsana '"controlling" Type IV infinitives are the same as Type III infinitives but are used between different verbs or when combining to verbs. Their ending is ''-minen''. 'suu- '"eat" > 'suuminen '"eating" Type V infinitives translate to "going to -" or "about to -". Their ending is ''-munnesani''. 'kyvo- '"come" > 'kyvomunnesani '"about to come" ' Verbal Subjects Saanain, being a pro-drop language, uses a system of using verbs and their conjugation as subjects of sentences. This system creates the verbal subject. A verb is always conjugated for person, so any verb can carry a pronoun in its conjugation, without a pronoun or otherwise. In case I, the pronoun es ''is used (unnecessarily) to convey the meaning of ''he/she/it, so that the sentence translates to he/she/it gives gold. However, in case II, it can be inferred by the conjugation that the giver is he/she/it. This compound forms the verbal subject. The verbal subject is used as a placeholder for a pronoun and a verb, and using it enables Saanain to form its various sentence orders. There is little difference, however, between the verbal subject and a regular verb. As a rule of thumb, any conjugated verb in a sentence that has undergone pro-drop is a verbal subject. Syntax Saanain is usually described as having an SOV or SVO sentence order, but due to its highly flexible morphology, it can take on any sentence order or syntax. This is furthered by its pro-drop characteristics, which (as discussed above) can create verbal subjects. Lexicon Example text Article I of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights "Kokko misekihat seytssan vataan ja pahdan pöhdisyätä ja ongeten. Ne südene ja ontuunuune audassan ja toumosiatse etkuutu vialmmoherdetu." Category:Languages